Great answers as usual, Wittman
I would just like to try and help everyone out with a few basic summary statements about carriers and fighters.
It is only during the combat movement phase that you must have a POSSIBLE landing place for all fighters, assuming they all survive, in the noncombat phase.
During the combat phase, you no longer have to worry about this requirement - that is, you can take hits to carriers even though that means certain death for some fighters.
During the non-combat phase, you MUST safely land every surviving fighter/tac that you possibly can.
The 1 MP extra to land is for stranded defensive planes only - this does not apply to attackers.
The case of retreating carriers is a good example to talk about. To illustrate:
You attack a sea zone with a fleet, including 1 carrier and 2 fighters that have 0 MP left.
During combat, if you were to retreat the fleet (air stays in the zone), there is no way that the 2 fighters could land anywhere because they have 0 MP left. Even if you controlled the island in the zone, they could not land there. Their only possible landing place was the carrier, but IT WAS legal to retreat and strand the air. The “no kamikaze” rule ONLY applies to the combat MOVEMENT phase, not the conduct combat phase.
Hope this helps